PHIL 232 Lecture 4: Political Philosophy

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School

University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

Department

Philosophy

Course

PHIL 232

Professor

Eric Swanson

Semester

Fall

Description

Political Philosophy
Political philosophy: how things should be.. what could be best or objectionable.. political science is just
studying what is
Ideal theory: if things were perfect, we’d have things like this. Knowing the facts and how things are
isn’t as important. Apriori… in your head and you can just think of.
Non-ideal theory: what would make things better, approaching.. what is a practical way to go about this
when I describe how we can improve things
Society vs State
Mbuti people have culture and everything to make them a society, but they don’t have a political
organization so their society is stateless. No interaction with the government or anything at all. They
solve problems not by punishment like prison, but by shunning/reminding you of your place.
 There is no single ruling force over another
Max Weber
“The state has been successful in seeking to monopolize the legitimate use of physical force as a means
of domination within a territory.” His definition says that it is sufficient for something to be a state if
this^^
Necessary Conditions for physical force to be legit:
 Factual conditions: you must have the actual power and legitimate strength and force
 Evaluative conditions: you must have the moral authority to be obeyed (for example, how a
citizen wouldn’t have the moral authority to use a gun against someone, as a police officer
could)
Society vs State
Conceptual question: what is a state?
Moral question: under what circumstances does a person or group have the right to control a society?
Conceptual question quickly leads to moral question
Hobbes on the function of political states
Hobbes says we need political states to save us from ourselves > without them, we will be in a state of